Wave charged 1% to send money in Senegal when everyone else was charging 3-5%. One third of all adults in Senegal now use Wave. It is the largest mobile money platform in the country and the first francophone African unicorn. The business model is just: charge less, build something people actually love to use. Apparently that is still a competitive advantage.
Founded
2018
HQ
Dakar, Senegal
Total Raised
$290M raised
Founder
Drew Durbin, Lincoln Quirk
Status
Active — largest mobile money provider in Senegal and growing across West Africa
Website
wave.comTHE ORIGIN STORY
Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk had worked in mobile payments and finance in Africa and were frustrated by how expensive it was to send money within a country. In Senegal, sending money to a family member via Orange Money or Free Money could cost 3-5% of the transfer amount.
For a laborer sending $50 to their family, that was $2.50 gone. Durbin and Quirk launched Wave in Senegal in 2018 with a radical price: 1% flat.
No hidden fees. The simplicity was the product.
Wave became the first startup in francophone Africa to reach unicorn status (over $1.7B valuation) when it raised $200M in 2021.
WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO
Wave charges 1% for mobile money transfers in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Uganda, and Mali. There are no fixed fees and no hidden charges — just 1% on top of what you send.
This is dramatically cheaper than M-Pesa (which can charge 3-5% depending on the amount and the market). Wave makes money on the volume.
The model requires massive transaction volume and an agent network to deposit and withdraw cash.
THE PRODUCTS
Wave mobile money app (send, receive, pay bills), Wave business accounts, Wave agent network, Wave card (Visa partnership)
HOW THEY GREW
Wave achieved 1 in 3 adults in Senegal using the product within three years — the fastest financial product adoption in Senegal's history. It expanded to Ivory Coast, Uganda, and Mali.
The growth playbook was: undercut incumbents on price, build a fast and beautiful app, train agents intensively. Word-of-mouth spread extraordinarily fast in markets where the incumbent product was expensive and confusing.
THE HARD PART
Building a mobile money network means building a physical cash-in/cash-out agent network — small shops and kiosks where customers can deposit and withdraw cash. That requires on-the-ground operations in countries with wildly different regulatory environments, infrastructure quality, and competitive dynamics.
Wave also has to compete with entrenched operators: Orange Money and MTN Mobile Money are backed by the largest telecom companies in Africa and have existing customer relationships. Winning required pricing and simplicity that telcos could not match without cannibalizing their own margins.
MONEY TRAIL
Seed
2019 · Led by Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures
$4M raised
Series A
2021 · Led by Sequoia Heritage, Founders Fund, Stripe, Ribbit Capital
$200M raised
WHO BACKED THEM
Sequoia Heritage, Founders Fund, Stripe, Khosla Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Y Combinator
Related Profiles
Companies
Chipper Cash
Both target the massive underserved mobile money market across Africa with lower fees than incumbents
Flutterwave
Both are African fintech companies disrupting traditional payments infrastructure across the continent
M-Pesa
Wave directly competes with M-Pesa by offering dramatically lower fees in West African markets
Head-to-Head
Compare Wave vs another company.